Inspiratory muscle training (IMT) improves exercise capacity and ventilatory responses to exercise in patients with chronic heart failure (CHF) with inspiratory muscle weakness (IMW). This stuidy analyzed the effects of IMT on the oxygen uptake efficiency slope (OUES) in this patient population. Thirty-two CHF patients with IMW were randomly assigned to either a 12-week program of IMT or placebo-IMT. PImax and OUES were obtained before and after the intervention. Inspiratory muscle training resulted in 115% increment in PImax and in significant improvement in OUES. There were no significant changes in the P-IMT group. There was a significant association between the changes in PImax and OUES.
The results of this study show that in CHF patients with IMW, IMT results in a significant increase in OUES.